Along with Guild Wars 2’s incredible visuals, this generates a powerful sense of adventure. Guild Wars 2 is a staggering triumph of original world design, one that even without the generous rewards would be worth exploring simply to gawk at the sights. From the rickety wooden planks of vast underwater structures to glowing cube-like Asuran fantasy machinery to boiling lava lakes inside towering mountains, Tyria is one of the most visually stunning virtual worlds in existence provided you have a machine capable of running it at its highest settings. The main cities in particular are designed with an unbelievable amount of detail. Even though ArenaNet works with familiar fantasy ideas, such as that of a pirate port town, the results transcend the confines of convention, like the city of Lion’s Arch, where hours can be lost screencapping its dense beauty like a wide-eyed tourist. Even the interface is artfully constructed, designed to convey a painterly look with brushstrokes along its borders instead of hard lines. This style is applied to every part of the game, including the enormous amount of in-game cinematics that tell Guild Wars 2’s main story.

These personal story quests form the spine of Tyria’s tale, from the opening moments where you deal with the more localized issues of your selected race to the point where you’re up against the world’s greatest evils. Instead of infrequent reminders that yes, there is a main story, these quests occur often, usually pose a challenge and can each last for a surprising, sometimes unnecessary amount of time. The sheer volume of content here is impressive and the inclusion of world-threatening dragons, huge battles and near constant treachery should make for an entertaining tale the whole way through, but the personal story quests never reach the same heights as the world events.

Despite the enormous amount of time you’ll spend listening to characters talk throughout the main story’s fully voiced dialogue sequences, few personalities are memorable. They’re mostly plain, flatly drawn characters constructed solely to move the plot along, lacking the kind of depth and warmth that might otherwise trigger a significant emotional response. That’s not true of all those met along the journey. ArenaNet seems most comfortable setting a humorous tone instead of one of compelling heroic idealism. Goofy, eccentric characters are developed in a way that engenders more sympathy than the serious and stoic types, making the irritable inventors of the Asura far more interesting to listen to than the predictable Norn warriors, and making story missions where you’re taking on pirates in drinking contests much more fun than some of the needlessly drawn-out climactic encounters.

Even though the story may not draw out tears or shouts of joy, it’s structurally impressive, with unique sequences for all five races and plenty of opportunities to choose a path forward as you join specialized orders and frequently select one of multiple mission objectives. Such a setup lends a sense that no matter how you decide to play, you’re missing content. There’s so much in Guild Wars 2 that it wouldn’t be too difficult to level another class to the cap and see numerous new zones and events and interact with different characters.

Story also extends to the numerous dungeons built for five person groups, making each instanced set of challenges feel less like some separate, random pocket of enemies and more threaded together with the rest of the world. You’ll see cut-scenes with recurring characters throughout each dungeon played in the initial story mode, and you can return later to take on a dungeon’s more challenging explorable mode, where the strengths of Guild Wars 2’s flexible class system become apparent.

There’s no dedicated healing class in Guild Wars 2. Instead, every class can restore health, something ArenaNet implemented to break down the need to collect a healer, tank and damage dealers before heading into a dungeon. The result is a bit of a mess at first. Ascalonian Catacombs, the first dungeon, is initially a brutal place, where ghostly enemies will tear into thin ragged strips an unsuspecting group used to the lenient events in the outdoor world. Conquering the structured content requires a much more careful consideration of which skills to set as active, observation of enemy behavior and timely dodge-rolling away from enemy attacks. It’s a fast system that, particularly in explorable mode dungeons, can feel unfair, but because of the degree of challenge feels especially satisfying when bosses are eventually conquered.

For each of the eight classes ArenaNet regulates which skills can be active by providing a limited number of skill slots and tying many skills to weapons. Half of the skill bar is determined by your equipped weapon, and you can quickly switch between two weapon sets, allowing for essentially two subclasses to be available at once. With a Guardian, a support-style heavily-armored class that be modified to heal and cast magic orbs from a distance or deal heavy area of effect damage by equipping a two-handed sword, there’s a lot of room to adapt. Between fights active skills can easily be swapped around, which could be a necessity depending on group composition and the next enemy.

The depth here is especially impressive after unlocking some of the skills not tied to weapon selection. You’ll find ways to deflect projectiles, stun and snare enemies, and set up temporary combo fields that other players can interact with to gain bonus effects that deal added damage or wipe away debuffs. Most skills that tag enemies with harmful effects or boost statistics are short-duration, so especially close attention needs to be given to when they’re best triggered. Movement also becomes a key factor, as enemies will often give tells when they’re about to unleash an attack, and if you don’t time your dodge properly, the punishment is usually quick and severe.

One of the bosses in the explorable mode of Ascalonian Catacombs, for instance, charges up a whirling attack where he tosses spears at your group members and yanks back any he hits, then follows up with a blade flurry that’s basically an instant kill. By dodging the spears you’ll continue the fight unaffected and can continue attacking, healing and buffing teammates. If you’re hit, then your teammates need to find an opening to gather around you, and because every class can revive, bring you back to life before the boss throws any more spears. The catch is you can’t dodge forever; it’s tied to a slowly regenerating resource, so like with managing the short-duration buffs and debuffs, ArenaNet encourages you to only dodge when necessary, adding yet another layer of necessary precision. Balancing all these variables while getting accustomed to the fast pace of a fight makes combat in Guild Wars 2 feel more like an action game than a standard MMO, where victory in its more challenging modes feels like a result of personal skill than an eventuality.